Praver 1
'The Influence of Family' I come from a Jewish family. Most of the family was born in New York and have lived there for a long time. It is a tightly knit family filled with very smart individuals who have excelled in the classroom and their occupations. I come from an athletic family. My family loves sports. My father, uncle, grandfather, and my great uncles grew up as huge professional sport fans, supporting the New York Mets, Jets, Rangers and Knicks. In addition to supporting teams, they grew up playing baseball, basketball, and tennis. They were quite skilled at them too. Not the tallest players on the court or field, they often had one of the greatest IQ’s out of all of the athletes, outsmarting them. My grandfather tried out to be a second baseman for the New York Yankees. He was as passionate as it gets, along with my father, and I tried to take after them. They also had a great attitude and were team players, rather than selfish, individually minded players. That too I tried to replicate. My mother and grandmother were actresses. They were very serious about acting, but they were never people who had the desire to take the spotlight away from their counterparts. They focused on their craft and what they could do to contribute to the cast. My mother was often the lead actress in her plays in grade school. She earned a lot of recognition for her outstanding performances, and she was very humble about it too. That taught me a good lesson too. She taught me not to brag and to always be supportive of other teammates, or cast mates. I am an only child, and it has been a major benefit to me. I have a very close relationship with my parents, one that is truly special. I have always asked them for advice and they have answered any questions I have had for them along the way. They have focused a lot of their attention on me and I am grateful for that. My mother encouraged me to be a performer. I acted in four plays. She was also a career counselor at Yale University. She seemed to counsel me growing up, and I have used a lot of her advice and knowledge to counsel others in need. My father was an athlete and a traveler. He has encouraged me to enjoy sports and to have the desire to learn by traveling to different places around the world. My family loves to travel. Growing up, I loved to write about all of the great trips that I have taken. I enjoy non-fictional writing for that reason. We have traveled to many cities and landmarks in the United States, to Canada, U.S. Virgin Islands, Italy, Israel, England, France and Switzerland. My father and I take trips where we enjoy a U.S. city while attending ballgames in that city. We enjoy those trips a lot and do them once or twice a year. Growing up, I saw my mother perform in skits, sing at events, and sing at home with a guitar. I loved that. I also saw pictures of my father interviewing New York Mets players at Shea Stadium on the field for his college newspaper. I wonder where I get my interest in writing and broadcasting from? My grandfather knew how much I love and care about sports. He would often say to me, “Why do you care so much about them (athletes), they don’t care about you.” He used to say the same thing to my father. Of course he was joking, but it shows how much time and energy both my dad and I have spent on following sports, athletes and teams.